Cayden Rohlfing, 3, drags his bag of Christmas presents as he leaves a Crime Survivors' event at Boomers in Irvine on Sunday. The event, a combination of Survivors' Gift Drive and Elf's Holly Day, brought together 80 families who have been victims of violent crime for a day of food, fun and presents. Cayden's family was victimized by domestic violence.

Alina Ponce, 7, opens up a doll with the help of her great-grandmother Esther Delfin during a Crime Survivors' event at Boomers in Irvine on Sunday. Alina's mom, Eileen Ponce, was murdered in 2008 by a family member.

Esther Delfin holds a photo that she was wearing around her neck of her granddaughter Eileen Ponce during a Crime Survivors' event at Boomers in Irvine on Sunday. Eileen Ponce was 22 years old when she was killed by a family member in 2008.

Ezekiel Campos, 3 months, laughs with his grandmother Sandy Silva during a Crime Survivors' event at Boomers in Irvine on Sunday. Silvas' brother was killed by another family member. The event, a combination of Survivors' Gift Drive and Elf's Holly Day, brought together 80 families who have been victims of violent crime for a day of food, fun and presents

Marcus Sowell, 4, enjoys his pizza during a Crime Survivors' event at Boomers in Irvine.

Nine-month-old Jonathan Martinez of Santa Ana checks out Santa during a Crime Survivors' event at Boomers in Irvine on Sunday.

More than 300 people from 80 families came together for a Crime Survivors' event at Boomers in Irvine on Sunday. The event, a combination of Survivors' Gift Drive and Elf's Holly Day, brought together families who have been victims of violent crime for a day of food, fun and presents.

Angel Lopez, 3, gets a balloon dog with the help of his sister Edith during a Crime Survivors' event at Boomers in Irvine.

The families that gathered Sunday around tables loaded with pizza and cupcakes, the children who jostled around Santa Claus and poked his fat belly – they all had terrible stories to tell.

A son knifed to death. A woman punched and strangled by her boyfriend. A little boy beaten and left for dead with a fractured skull.

Crime Survivors Inc. of Irvine hosted its annual holiday party on Sunday, delivering a few hours of holiday cheer to 300 people who have known murder, rape, domestic violence and abuse. Some wore the faces of lost loved ones on their shirts.

“It’s become like a family,” said Ivette Duenas, 35, of Anaheim, who escaped an abusive boyfriend who once battered her face so badly that she couldn’t recognize herself. “We’re all here because we’ve all suffered through something.”

Wenskunas founded Crime Survivors in 2003, the year after she escaped from a man who had drugged her, plastic-wrapped her mouth and threatened to kill her. The Irvine-based organization exists to help crime survivors navigate the police process and the court system and to recover physically, emotionally and financially.

Wenskunas talks about “hopeful healing,” about the difficult road from victim to survivor. The news in recent days, of a mass shooting that killed children and teachers at a Connecticut school, has hit hard in this community of people who know violence first-hand, she said.

The holiday party – called Elf’s Holly Day – exists to bring that community together, to celebrate the holidays and to look forward to another year of healing. On Sunday, Wenskunas stood in the party room of the Boomers entertainment center in Irvine, among 80 bags of donated and carefully wrapped presents, and said her heart was overjoyed.

“It’s peace, joy. It’s happiness,” she said. “And it’s a community that’s come together for one another.”

Another year, Angela Smith, 48, of Los Angeles, would have been making macaroni and cheese and sweet-potato pie for Christmas, her son’s favorites. But he was stabbed to death in 2005, murdered because a friend had been seen with another man’s girlfriend. He was 20 years old and had just become a father.

She comes every year to the holiday party. “I always feel so alone,” she said. The party, she added, “is always warming to my heart.”

A few tables over was Ana Johnson, 46, of Winchester, the grandmother of a little boy whose father beat him almost to death, leaving him with skull fractures, a broken leg and bite wounds. She was alone at the table; her grandson, she explained, was off playing Skee Ball in the arcade with his mother.

“We all came together, we all survived, and we all keep surviving,” she said.

Vickie Scott, 56, of Santa Ana brought her three great-nieces and one great-nephew to the party. When they were younger, living hotel-to-hotel with their mother, she used to cook them meals of chicken and rice and deliver it to them in the dead of night – the only food they would have that day. She has custody of them now.

“It means a lot for the kids,” she said of the holiday party, “just to let them know that other people love them, that they’re here for them.”

A flurry of excitement interrupted her as kids jumped from their seats and dashed between the tables toward the front door. One of hers leaned from the crowd and shouted back: “Grandma! Grandma! Santa!”

Survivors of violent crimes, some with pictures of murdered loves ones on their shirts, came together Sunday for a holiday party with others who knew what they had gone through.

The annual party is hosted by Crime Survivors Inc., an Irvine-based organization that supports survivors and their families. An estimated 300 people attended this year, representing 80 families hurt by violence.

“I felt like I was all alone,” said Vickie Smith, 56, of Santa Ana, who took custody of her nieces and nephews after they had been abused and neglected by their mother. She smiled as the children jostled for a seat on Santa’s lap. Here, she said, “I see that there are other families just like me.”

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